Many public safety officers are equipped with devices that aide in locating the officer during a “man down” situation. For example, a police officer may press an emergency button on a radio that helps identify and locate the officer during a man down situation. Similarly, a fire fighter may wear a Personal Alert Safety System (PASS) device that detects a lack of movement and sounds an audible alarm when movement ceases. Other man-down notification systems sense when an individual has switched from vertical to horizontal orientation and sends an alarm signal back to a dispatch station.
Existing man down notifications have limited effectiveness. For example, people standing 100 feet away from an alarm might not notice a man down audible alert, delaying assistance to the downed individual. Therefore a need exists for a method and apparatus to more-quickly locate a person during a man-down situation.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required.